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New remains of Ailuropoda melanoleuca baconi from Yanjinggou, China: Throwing light on the evolution of giant pandas during the Pleistocene

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Abstract

The giant panda, currently restricted to a small region of central China, was once widely dispersed throughout southern China and even some parts of continental Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene epoch. However, the evolutionary process and intraspecific variation remain poorly understood in light of limited fossil records, which are usually isolated teeth and a few fragmentary skulls and mandibles. Here we report three skulls, two of which are nearly complete, of Ailuropoda melanoleuca baconi from Yanjinggou in China, which represent the best-preserved skull material ever recorded for this paleosubspecies. A. m. baconi, characterized by a large and robust body, extremely developed zygomatic arches, a moderately developed sagittal crest, and a medium-rough external surface of the supraoccipital, exoccipital, and ascending ramus compared with Ailuropoda microta and other paleosubspecies and living subspecies of A. melanoleuca, can be regarded as a valid paleosubspecies. Ailuropoda fovealis or Ailuropoda melanoleuca fovealis turns out to be a synonym of A. m. baconi. The intraspecific variation of A. m. baconi is far more complicated than generally accepted. Based on comparisons with A. microta, A. m. wulingshanensis, and modern Ailuropoda melanoleuca, we propose that the evolutionary tendency of the skull appears to be much clearer than that of the teeth and that the increase in body size and the enhancement of the masticatory system can be deemed as the main evolutionary changes in this part of the Ailuropoda lineage. Meanwhile, our study for the first time provides a numerical age (ca. 0.35–0.26 Ma) for the Yanjinggou fauna, which is generally considered as a mixture of the middle Early Pleistocene fauna and the Mid-Late Pleistocene fauna.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed herein studied are present in this published article and the Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Jinyi Liu for instruction in both methods and theories and Yuan Wang, Fang Zheng, Jin Chen, Dan Lu, Dongsheng Li and Liaoyuan Ma for access to A. microta, A. m. wulingshanensis and recent giant panda materials. We also thank Wanbo Huang, Yuqing Zhang, Yin Long and Zhenlong Zhang for the field work and fossil preparations. This work was supported by fund of science and technology project (KJ2020036) in 2020 of Chongqing Planning and Natural Resources Bureau and National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877430) in 2019. Finally, we thank Paul Rummy and Xi Chen, who was keenly interested in giant panda evolution, for their contributions on literatures download and comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China

    Haiqian Hu, Haowen Tong & Jingsong Shi

  2. College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Haiqian Hu

  3. Chongqing Key Laboratory of Paleontology and Paleoenvironment Co-Evolution (Sichuan-Chongqing Joint Construction); No. 208 Hydrogeological and Engineering Geological Team, Chongqing Bureau of Geological and Mineral Resource Exploration and Development, Chongqing, 400700, China

    Haiqian Hu, Haidong Yu, Xunqian Wang, Can Xiong, Yu Lin, Ning Li, Zhaoying Wei & Ping Wang

  4. CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing, 100044, China

    Haiqian Hu, Haowen Tong & Jingsong Shi

  5. Speleothem Isotope Laboratory, School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 21002, China

    Qingfeng Shao

  6. Chongqing Institute of Geological Survey, Chongqing, 401122, China

    Guangbiao Wei

  7. School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100080, China

    Qigao Jiangzuo

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  1. Haiqian Hu
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  2. Haowen Tong
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Correspondence to Haiqian Hu or Qigao Jiangzuo.

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Hu, H., Tong, H., Shao, Q. et al. New remains of Ailuropoda melanoleuca baconi from Yanjinggou, China: Throwing light on the evolution of giant pandas during the Pleistocene. J Mammal Evol 30, 137–154 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-022-09637-1

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